The significance of hair in F.

Scott Fitzgerald’s Bernice

Bobs her Hair and Kalina Maleska’s The Child without
Golden Hair
Bernice Bobs her Hair

Setting: Nameless Midwestern city, 1920

(The Roaring Twenties)

“There was Genevieve Ormonde, who

regularly made the rounds of dances,
house-parties…and, of course, there was
Marjorie Harvey, who besides
having a fairylike face and a dazzling,
bewildering tongue
was already justly celebrated for having
turned five cartwheels in succession
during the last pump-and-slipper dance
at New Haven.” (Fitzgerald, 1)

FAMILY GUY – S15 E07 – HIGH SCHOOL ENGLISH

Bernice

 “Warren stifled a sigh and nodded. It might be for all he knew or cared.
He wondered idly whether she was a poor conversationalist because she got no
attention or got no attention because she was a poor conversationalist.” (Fitzgerald, 2)

 “She's sensitive enough to know she's not getting away with much, but I'll
bet she consoles herself by thinking that she's very virtuous and that I'm too gay and fickle
and will come to a bad end.” Marjorie talking to her mother about Bernice (Fitzgerald, 3)

 "Do you think I ought to bob my hair, Mr. Charley Paulson?"

Charley looked up in surprise. "Why?"
"Because I'm considering it. It's such a sure and easy way of attracting attention.“ (Fitzgerald, 6)

"I want to be a society vampire, you see," she announced coolly, and went on to inform him that bobbed hair
was the necessary prelude (Fitzgerald, 6)
Bernicefaces peer pressure from Marjorie to bob her hair, so she can become a part of her
cousin’s social circle (that’s what Bernice thinks).

Forrising action, Fitzgerald would then rely upon dialogue, his characters verbally parrying and
thrusting over the meaning of modern love and its sustainability in marriage. The one thematic
exception to this is “ Bernice Bobs Her Hair, ” which is more concerned with female propriety
and the initiation rituals of the rising generation. (Curnutt, 300)

“Twenty minutes later the barber swung her round to face the mirror, and she flinched at the full
extent of the damage that had been wrought. Her hair was not curly, and now it lay in lank
lifeless blocks on both sides of her suddenly pale face. It was ugly as sin--she had known it
would be ugly as sin.” (Fitzgerald, 10)

The hair bobbing turns out to be a failure, according to Marjorie’s plan

Taken from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tR-

vCv4cgnA&ab_channel=pressmin
Bernice’s Revenge:
“She was by the bedside now, very deliberate and calm. She acted swiftly. Bending over she found
one of the braids of Marjorie's hair, followed it up with her hand to the point nearest the head, and
then holding it a little slack so that the sleeper would feel no pull, she reached down with the shears
and severed it. With the pigtail in her hand she held her breath. Marjorie had muttered something in
her sleep. Bernice deftly amputated the other braid, paused for an instant, and then flitted swiftly and
silently back to her own room.” (Fitzgerald, 11)

Taken from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=tR-vCv4cgnA&ab_channel=pressmin
 The Child without Golden Hair

 “I was ten years old when the future Queen arrived at the palace. The news of the royal
marriage spread throughout the kingdom, but the people were surprised by the King’s
choice. It was said that his chosen bride was from a very poor family and that the King had
chosen her because one evening, his servants heard her say that if the King married her, she
would bear him a child with golden hair.” (Maleska, 1)

 The prophecy of the child to be born with golden hair  Divine/supernatural status in
society (the king’s POV)

Title page taken from: https://eca.unwomen.org/-/media/field

%20office%20eca/attachments/publications/2021/fairy%20tales/
stories2/the%20child%20without%20golden%20hair.pdf?
la=en&vs=2229&fbclid=IwAR2H3WVI6neHc0VU9XS76fVK_dL
58GwDnO6ctd5dBUpe1jHBcHf56pqP6Mg
 “The next morning, the King’s heralds pronounced that the Queen had given birth to
a sickly child instead of keeping her promise to give birth to a golden-haired boy. As
punishment, she was bricked up all the way to her neck at the gates of the keep. The
King ordered that everyone who passed through the gate must spit on her.” (Maleska,
5)

 “The Child without Golden Hair’ is based on several fairy tales with similar motives,
in which queens give birth to children with golden hair and sometimes golden stars
on their foreheads. Many of the plot developments and relationships between the
characters seemed problematic to me, so I was inspired to make them visible in my
story. My story, therefore, is not based on changing the events of the existing fairy
tales (they mostly remain the same), but on foregrounding the prejudices and abuse
of power in them by changing the perspective” (Take Five: “Social norms…”)

Taken from:
https://eca.unwomen.org/-/media/field%20office%20eca/attachments/publications/
2021/fairy%20tales/stories2/the%20child%20without%20golden%20hair.pdf?
la=en&vs=2229&fbclid=IwAR2H3WVI6neHc0VU9XS76fVK_dL58GwDnO6ctd5dB
Upe1jHBcHf56pqP6Mg
The significance of hair in both short stories
The Child without Golden Hair
Bernice Bobs Her Hair

• Beauty/Sex appeal  Social symbol: power/

• The divine right to
prestige
• Social initiation/identity rule (the king’s POV)
change  Has deadly • Superstition (the
consequences when a queen’s POV) 
• Attention
misfire happens
• Popularity comes from a poor
(Bernice’s hair is
bobbed, loses her family
popularity; • Realistic perspective
(normal hair/child),
The king finds out that
according to the main
the child Is without
golden hair and
character and her
punishes his wife) mother
References & other material:
“Bernice Bobs Her Hair [w/ intro by Henry Fonda] -- Short Story Film by F. Scott Fitzgerald”, YouTube, uploaded by pressmn, 5 Sep.
2016, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tR-vCv4cgnA&ab_channel=pressmin.

Curnutt,K. “The Short Stories of F. Scott Fitzgerald: Structure, Narrative Technique, Style” A Companion to the American Short Story
(Blackwell Companions to Literature and Culture), edited by Alfred Bendixen and James Nagel, John Wiley & Sons, 2010, pp. 295-316.

Maleska, K. "Awake not Sleeping: Reimagining fairy tales for a new generation“: “The Child without Golden Hair”. 2021.
https://eca.unwomen.org/ /media/field%20office%20eca/attachments/publications/2021/fairy%20tales/stories2/the%20child%20without
%20golden%20hair.pdf?la=en&vs=2229&fbclid=IwAR3tDbalnSI70x1iLyTBdG6R0w1clouz9vrSy9CylZ28xSOSMP7XT2GXD9c

Take Five: “Social norms and ethical systems need to change to improve gender equality”. UN WOMEN: Europe and Central Asia. Friday,
June 18, 2021. Accessed on Monday, November 29, 2021. https://
eca.unwomen.org/en/news/stories/2021/06/take-five-there-should-not-be-an-end-to-the-efforts-for-achieving-human-rights.